Tuesday, June 28, 2011

"I Do Not Know This Man" (Hatter Reviews TRUE GRIT)

Talking about The Coen Brothers proved to be a tricky task. They have so many truly great films that one could easily dedicate an entire twelve part series to them alone! But in the effort to keep things succint, Simon and I were forced to skim past some of their titles.

Such as TRUE GRIT.

But thankfully, both he and I have done a lot of writing on the Coens over the years, so we have them covered with the written word.

Here's a taste of what I thought of their western remake last year...

TRUE GRIT feels like a sermon about cowardice and consequences. The movie begins with a quote, pointing out that the lowest form of cowards are the ones that run when nobody is there to chase them. What sort of fate should befall such a person? Do they deserve the mercy and luxury of the law? It wouldn't seem so if even a fourteen-year-old can grasp the gutlessness of the action. No. In the society TRUE GRIT inhabits, such lack of spine merits bounty hunters, vigilante justice, and retribution...

1 comment:

Coen brothers. Enjoyed the film - and I felt it fit very nicely outside the top ten films of last year. It was on the runner up list, among "Winter's Bone", "Ghost Writer", and "It's Kind of a Funny Story".